As
election time rolls around, some people may not be fully aware
of their current elected officials. TheIndiana
Secretary of Statehas an
interactive mapthat displays current elected officials.
With the click of a mouse and knowledge of your home address,
you can find your federal, state, county, township, and school
board officials. Some elected officials have contact information
so you can email them or check out their websites for their
policies, agendas, and initiatives. Please remember to exercise
your right to vote this election. No vote=No voice.

Still
not registered to vote? The deadline has passed for the upcoming
municipal election, but if you cannot find time to stop into
your county office, you may want to check out the Indiana Statewide
Voter Registration System
(SVRS). The SVRS is a single, uniform electronic database
containing voter registration records for the 92 counties in
Indiana. This user-friendly database can help you find your polling
place, confirm your voter
registration, and
register to vote.
It also contains many other helpful tools and resources to help
Hoosier voters make informed decisions. This database obtains
information from other state agencies such as the Indiana Bureau
of Motor Vehicles and the Indiana Department of Health in order
to ensure that their data is accurate. If you find that your
personal information needs to be corrected, notify your county clerk
or Board of Voter Registration.

Although
it’s not a year for national-level elections, librarians and
library patrons alike may be interested in data from the Federal Election
Commission, or FEC.
The FEC was created in 1975 to “administer and enforce the
Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) – the statute that governs
the financing of federal elections.” Basically, the Commission
enforces laws on political contributions and monitors public
funding for Presidential elections. They are also responsible
for making campaign finance information publicly available.
Their Disclosure Data
Search allows users
to search for campaign contributions to national elections, both
presidential and congressional. You can search both by
contributor and by candidate. Additionally, you can search by
committee. This will tell you not only which committees have
donated, but also which committees have received funds. It’s
broken down by year and dates back at least to the mid-90’s. You
can also find Candidate and
PAC/Party Summaries
from the last two congressional election cycles. Those
interested in downloading a lot of data at once will like the
Disclosure Data
Catalog. This
feature is still being developed, but it allows users to
download large amounts of data in useable formats. The news is
full of sound bites about who contributed to whose campaign;
this way, you can verify those stories for yourself!

In
addition to Election Day, it’s important to remember another
event this month: Veterans Day. Without the service of veterans
to our country, it’s likely that we would not even have this
important right. According to the Census Bureau’s Facts for Features
for Veterans Day 2011,
there are currently 21.8 military veterans in the United States.
Originally known as Armistice Day, the purpose was to celebrate
peace following the first World War and honor those who had
fought in it. We continued to celebrate Armistice Day until
1954. At this time, Americans had fought in World War II and
Korea and Armistice Day was officially changed to Veterans Day.
See the first Veterans Day Proclamation issued by Eisenhower
here.
Read more about Veterans Day
and its history
at the Veterans Affairs website. You also may want to check out
the Veterans Day
Council of Indianapolis
for local information. Finally, the VA has a website for kids!
Go here to read information about the VA, veterans, and the
American flag.

There
will be a national test of the Emergency Alert System at 2 PM
EST on Wednesday, November 9. Please be sure to share this
information with your patron. The Indiana Department
of Homeland Security
(IDHS) has issued the following message:

The test will be at 2 p.m. EST,
Wednesday, Nov. 9 and may last for three minutes.

The purpose is to nationally
test the emergency alert system.Media used will be:

TV
(digital, cable, satellite and services); and

Broadcast radio

Geographic area will
be the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and
America Samoa.

Communication Goals:

Minimize undue public concern.

Make
public safety professionals aware of the test.Spread the
word to local communities.

Reduce 911 calls.

Reinforce preparedness
messaging.

For more
resources, such as PSA scripts and audio files, a flyer, press
release, preparedness kit, fact sheet and more, go to www.getprepared.in.gov
. If you have any questions, please call the IDHS Public
Information Officer on duty at 317.234.6713.

Friday Facts is a free
publication produced by the Indiana State Library, distributed weekly in an
electronic format.
Past issues are archived at www.in.gov/library/newsroom.htm.